If you’ve already missed two days at the gym and the wine bottle is calling your name even though you promised yourself a Dry January, you may be feeling a little blue. Cheer up! I’ve got just the New Year’s resolution to get you back on track.
It won’t help you lose weight or get your body beach-ready, but it will improve your website’s marketing effectiveness. Though you should be doing many of these things as part of your regular digital marketing work week in and week out, the new year is a great time to take stock and make sure you’re on the right track for success in the 12 months ahead. Here’s how:
Analytics Review
Knowing where you’ve been won’t necessarily help you know where to go, but it will help you know how you’ve gotten this far. Start by checking your analytics data for patterns. Are there site sections or types of content that have seen increased popularity or steep drops in consumption? Has your mobile audience grown significantly over the past year? Do your engagement stats compare well from mobile to desktop?
Tracking data points like these will help you understand where your website is excelling and where it needs more help.
Don’t forget the technical side of things. Page loading times are a critical factor in user experience and in search engine visibility. An annual audit can keep bloat at bay.
Content Audit
Contrary to the beliefs of many, bigger isn’t always better. As with your code base, your content library can become too large to be effective. You’re better off with fewer pages that are all top performers than a vast trove of mediocrity. Prune content based on the analytics review above and on what you’re hearing from your prospects and client-facing staff.
Spruce Up Old Content
Some old content may not need to be tossed entirely. Revising it, as publishers and authors do with some books, can bring new relevance — and marketing value — to the same content.
Landing Page Review
Not everyone comes in through the front door any more. In fact, if organic search is a big part of your traffic referrals, most visitors are likely coming in elsewhere. Make sure those landing pages, whether they are landing pages by design or by default, are built to encourage action.
Review CTAs
Speaking of which, review your calls to action. Is it clear what action you want your visitor to take? If too many CTAs make sense for a page, the page may not be targeted tightly enough.
Landing pages are also definitely an area where A/B and multivariate testing is a must. Small changes can make a big difference in your conversion rates.
Bonus – User Testing
If you’re really feeling ambitious, you can engage in end user testing on your site. This isn’t the functional testing that’s done during development to make sure that everything works as it’s supposed to. It’s testing designed to check that your audience can find the content they’re after, engage with it as you intend, and get the value out of your site that will keep them coming back until they’re ready to become a client.
